The Wall Street Journal reports that Kijiji is immediately available in 220 cities in all 50 US states. Like Craigslist, advertising is free with eBay looking at ways of charging sellers for display ads or premium services at a later date.

eBay bought 25% of Craigslist in 2004 and retains that shareholding today.

Despite, or perhaps because of its ugly interface, Craigslist has been an enormous success in the United States, although notably not nearly as much elsewhere. eBay is trying to tackle a 500 ton gorilla with a product that would appear to be nothing more that a pretty looking Craigslist clone, so it will be a hard ask. Then again eBay certainly has the strength, marketing skills and capital to call game on.